


Maybe a friend?

by Inovium



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Crack, Don't copy to another site, Friendship, Gen, Humor, No Plot/Plotless, No Smut, POV Third Person, POV Third Person Limited, Pre-Slash, Young John Watson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 20:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18667990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inovium/pseuds/Inovium
Summary: Ten minutes, John Watson has been waiting for the lift for ten minutes.An alternate universe where John and Sherlock are not introduced to one another by Mike Stamford, but happen on each other in a lift.It's actually really plotless right now, but the next chapter will have them actually talk to one another.





	1. The friend he hasn't met yet

**Author's Note:**

> Possible prequel, if so wished. Inspired by a real event in my life that I still really feel. No interaction (unfortunately but I'm to blame for that anyway), just a little oggling.
> 
> Not thoroughly Britpicked and may have grammatical errors, my apologies.

10 minutes.

The amount of time John Watson has been waiting for the lift at a shopping center he's recently started frequenting. The transport service here is shit, as you can tell. There are three lifts for a building and the average wait time for a ride will make anyone wish they'd taken an escelator, or even the stairs.

Not Harriet Watson.

"Harry, we could've gotten on the road by now if we'd just taken the damn stairs!"

"We've already been waiting ten minutes, John. We might as well just wait longer!"

Oh for fu- John exhales deeply ("Was that a sigh, John?" "No, no of course not. Absolutely not. What would make you think that?") and hits his head on the wall next to the massive elevator. The "Pet Friendly," print was staring back at him, and he could swear that Siamese cat on the design was mocking him.

Oh God, he was really losing his mind.

After thoughtless idling and pulling out a pocket book (he'd finished an entire chapter in the long wait), another lift beside them opened.

"Oh, thank God!" John exclaimed, walking over with a satisfied sigh of relief. He'd momentarily closed his eyes on the steps, and opened them to disappointment.

Once the people originally waiting stepped in, it was, of course, packed to the brim with people, all impatient to get to their levels. The intern sitting by the buttons gave him an apologetic look.

John had to stifle a scream, but managed a miserable smile to the poor intern (who really just wanted money for a new laptop he spilled juice on, and it was that or some restaurant run by crackheads.) before turning back to the original lift, sister still waiting on her phone.

Finally, FINALLY the lift's doors opened. Though it had plenty of people, the bigger size could accomodate some more weight. John was practically bursting with impatience as the -now aggravating- ding of the elevator welcomed them in.

As the two unwelcome-to-join-us-hellavator siblings stepped in, someone caught John's attention. He really didn't know why, or how, but this man had immediately been the first person (and in truth only person) he noticed in the lift. 

Said man had dark curly locks, pale (nearly unhealthy looking) skin, and sharp grey eyes, assesing the entire crowd. He wore a suit ("In a shopping center?") and was really... all posh-like. John was out of adjectives and out of patience to think of more adjectives.

It was rude to stare, however (and rather unfortunately), so he kept his eyes occupied on his book for what seemed like another ten damned minutes waiting to get to the carpark. 

At some point, the lift had slowly dispelled the people to their levels, until it was only the mystery man and Watson siblings remaining (and lift man). Eventually the doors opened to the ground level of the shopping area, and the dark, looming man stepped off the lift.

"He was looking at you like in some other world he'd have been your best mate," Harry pointed out to John. She had a slight grin on her face as John quirked a brow.

"Harry, he was looking at everyone like a hawk assessing it's prey."

"No, no, but he seemed into you. Think we'll see 'im again one day?" Harry nudged John and winked in his direction. He let out a chuckle and shook his head, trying not to feel embarrased having that shared in a lift with personnel on the buttons. This man didn't seem to care, though. Too broken by the world to care about laptops and burgers by crackheads.

"I doubt it. There's far too many people in the center alone for us to see each other again, imagine the city." 

"But imagine, what if, he might've been, I don't know, your best friend in another world?" John grinned and shook his head, but he wasn't ever going to admit that inside, when he'd had a look at the man, he'd wondered the same thing.

The lift opened to the underground parking, and the hellish heat that immediately blasted into John's face as he stepped off was enough to make him forget the incident. At least, for the time being.


	2. The friend he has now met

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Deep breaths, it's not like you're going to be killing him. You're just going to talk to him. Strike up a friendly conversation with a stranger while you're both alone in the hall to the bathroom. Yeah. You're definitely not coming off as a stalker."
> 
> He's really coming off as a creep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the tags since the story wasn't really planned past the first chapter. Still not britpicked and still may have grammatical errors. My apologies.

He was really doing this.

It was the third time he'd seen the man in the mall... that week.

So he may have been going around much more frequently than he needed, but he was just passing time! Well, atleast that's what he was telling himself. 

He may have seen this man looking around, sometimes into a hord of people, searching for someone. Sometimes, looking into the biology section of a book store. He wasn't following him around, and that wasn't why the people around him gave him weird looks whenever he did.

Harry was unconvinced.

"John, you've dragged me off to get coffee here when you know there's a coffee shop literally around the corner of our house. You have far too much food in the fridge going 'grocery shopping', You have three new jumpers you aren't even using, and we didn't need the new demon blender." They exchanged looks and a shudder. The 'demon blender' was a new, extremely noisy, far too powerful blender ("Harry, it chopped the fucking rock!") John had been convinced by Satan with a shit eating grin and fuzzy slippers. (Why did management let him? Well, to be fair, he had the creepiest blue and yellow eyes he's seen. The striking yellow and electric blue made him hear heartbeats just as he walked by. He also smelled faintly of ketchup.)

"So tell me, if not to stalk that dark knight of your dreams, why are we here?" Harry leaned back in her chair and raised a brow. Damn it. John really was cornered. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around him, almost as though he was afraid people were watching and judging. He should have realized people were already watching and judging. It was no secret that he was following some guy around the mall like a lost puppy.

He may not be the most cutout for shadowing someone after all.

"Look I just- It's- You're gonna think I'm a complete nutter." John shared in an all stressed out and exasperated manner. Harry's returning smile was over-sweet.

"You've been going to the mall for some excuse or another trailing this man who himself looks like he's gone off the rocker. You think I'm not already thinking that?" 

Well, she had a point.

With another sigh, seventy-two too many sighs, John got up, chair screeching against the floor, and made up his mind.

"Alright, I'm going to talk to him."

Harry stood up so quickly the chair tipped over. Multiple people looked in their directions and tutted.

"Finally! Let's get you talking and all this pining over with!"

"I'm not pining!"

\----------

Once Harry and John found the mystery man, it was time for the hard part. (Well, finding him really wasn't supposed to be that easy, but John had known where to look... a bit not good?)

Looking for a person was one thing, but confronting that person? That was something else completely.

John was about ready to throw in the towel and go home, but Harry was there to encourage John.

By encourage I mean force.

"John, for God's sake I am going to drag you by the ear if you chicken out now!" Harry whisper screamed into his ear. Both were hiding behind a wall into a corridor. Everyone passing was giving them weird looks, but no one said anything.

"What am I supposed to say? 'Hi, I noticed you in the lift last week and ever since I've decided to follow you around!' How do you think anyone would react to that?!" 

"You're not gonna find out until you try!" And with that, John was unceremoniously pushed forward, out of hiding, and was only a few strides away from the man. The mysterious man looked up at him for a second before looking back down to his phone, seemingly not minding his existence.

'Deep breaths, it's not like you're going to be killing him. You're just going to talk to him. Strike up a friendly conversation with a stranger while you're both alone in the hall to the bathroom. Yeah. You're definitely not coming off as a stalker.' He thought.

He's really coming off as a creep.

He had just started walking to the man when the person spoke up.

"Took you long enough."

"Sorry, what?" John all but tripped on air at the abrupt halt. 

"You've been following me around the mall for days, it took you long enough go actually talk to me." 

"Well I mean, you were around and..." John's head had stopped processing when the other person spoke. Harry was all but dying inside with how smoothly John was taking all this.

"Well? What is it?" An eyebrow was raised up, the man looking at him from over the phone. 

"Umm... Hi. You're the guy from the elevator." It wasn't even a question. He'd just stated it. John's brain (after a moment of rerunning that statement in his head) now blanked into the blue screen of death.

Harry, who had been busy nearly weeping behind the wall, decided to step up and help her brother out. 

"Oh fuck it." She walked up to Sherlock and explained, "He checked you out in the lift last wednesday and your beauty fried the little hamster in his head. He hasn't been thinking rationally since."

"Harry!" It may have taken a second for that to register, but miraculously his brain had restart.

The man in from of them looked every level of amused, bewildered. and confused.

"Oh God, I am so sorry. We absoloutely did NOT agree on this Harry!" John was in the middle zone between embarrased out of his mind and plain angry.

"For once in my life, I am at a loss for words." John felt a shiver crawl down his spine. The man's voice sounded like something out of a dream... a rather not appropriate for this story and tag kind of dream. John pulled himself together quickly, though. He was fresh out of university and was still well versed on the art of pulling on an "I'm alright and nothing is wrong" face. 

"That was a bit of a mess. My name's John Watson." John cringed at the roughness of the statement.

"Sherlock Holmes." 

Just like that, the stress was over. John felt himself relax into the small conversation with Sherlock, and they exchanged numbers.

The end.

Well, no.

John still left for the military, he still got wounded, he still got deployed home, and he still met with Stamford through the park.

This time though, when he walked through the door into the laboratory, Sherlock looked up, and after the quick flash of initial surprise, a smile lit his face and he got up to greet an old friend.

They'd lost contact somewhere down the road (probably Afghanistan), but kindred spirits never really forget each other. So Mike got quite the surprise that day when he saw Sherlock get up from his experimentand practically crush John in a hug.

"John, welcome back."


End file.
